The Tyre Nichols and Paul Pelosi videos have now been released and are each just as horrific as we all expected. We’ll never show the videos here, but we will discuss them.
Top News Today :
Last Friday, officials in Memphis released footage of the Tyre Nichols beating by police, while San Francisco officials simultaneously released footage of the beating of Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi. Let’s examine each event.
WARNING: EXPLICIT LANGUAGE
TYRE NICHOLS
For several days last week, elected officials in Memphis, TN (and across the country) as well as members of the media began forewarning the public to prepare themselves to view the heinous video of police beating 29-year-old Tyre Nichols into submission.
On the evening of January 7th, a sub-group of the Memphis Police Department known as the Scorpion Special Unit pulled Nichols over for an alleged traffic stop. Soon thereafter, a police bodycam captured 5 officers immediately going berserk in the moment.
“Get the fuck out of the car NOW!” police shouted at Nichols, who was clearly startled to see a gang of cops surrounding his car and already ramped up to 10. “What did I do?” Nichols asked the officers who refused to answer but instead yelled a score of profanities at him. “You guys are really doing a lot right now,” Nichols said seemingly to ease tensions. “I’m just trying to go home.”
Sadly, it all went downhill from there.
“GET ON THE GROUND! GET ON THE GROUND!” the officers barked while yanking Tyre Nichols forcibly from his vehicle.
“I didn’t do anything,” Nichols said.
“Bitch, put your hands behind your back before I… I’m going to knock your ass the fuck out,” one officer exclaimed.
“Tase him! Tase him!” an officer shouted.
“Get on the ground!” another officer yelled.
“I AM on the ground!” Nichols yelled back.
Next, one officer thought it was necessary to pepper spray Nichols. Another officer took that as a signal to deploy his taser — acts that appeared completely unnecessary since the video showed Nichols already on the ground and cowed by the officers.
At that moment, the 145-pound Tyre Nichols (who suffered from Crohn’s disease) realized this was no ordinary traffic stop and that his life was in imminent danger. So he did what anyone would do in the interest of self-preservation. He ran.
“I hope they stomp his ass,” one officer was heard saying to another as Nichols fled on foot.
When police eventually caught up to him, they pepper-sprayed him yet again — and then beat him to a pulp.
A security camera from a nearby streetlamp captured police officers taking turns punching him, knocking him to the ground, and kicking him in the face. At one point, Nichols was on the ground and had already been handcuffed — but that was not enough for one officer.
“I’m bout to baton the fuck outta you,” the officer said as he commenced to beating Nichols across his body with the steel police baton.
“MOM!” Nichols wailed as police called him a “bitch,” “bastard” and worse while striking him.
One officer had kicked Nichols so hard and so repeatedly that he was seen in the video limping. Another officer was shown suffering from the residual effects of the pepper spray. Still, that didn’t stop the officers from suddenly appearing nonchalant while attempting to justify their actions of the night to each other.
In all, the 4-part video of police beating Tyre Nichols lasted 67 minutes.
He died a few days later while hospitalized for his injuries.
On Friday night, peaceful protests from coast to coast demanded a change to police protocol that would prevent another deadly beating at the hands of police.
On Saturday, the Memphis Police Department disbanded the Scorpion Special Unit. Additionally, police forces across the country either ended or heavily curtailed similar police units.
Now-former police officers Demetrius Haley, Tadarrius Bean, Emmitt Martin III, Desmond Mills, Jr., and Justin Smith have all been placed under arrest and charged with second-degree murder, official misconduct, aggravated kidnapping, official oppression, and aggravated assault.
PAUL PELOSI
When the husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was attacked inside his San Francisco home in October of 2022, some conservative conspiracy theorists claimed it was a gay sex hookup gone wrong. However, the release on Friday of video footage of the attack proves it was indeed a deadly scheme designed to seek political revenge against Mrs. Pelosi.
Audio and video recordings from the night Paul Pelosi was attacked first showed intruder David DePape breaking into the Pelosi home with a hammer. Mr. Pelosi was aroused out of bed by the break-in but was luckily able to lock himself inside a bathroom and call 911.
The next footage came from a police bodycam.
Police arrived at the Pelosi home, knocked on the door, and were surprised to see Mr. Pelosi being held captive by DePape. It was then that DePape boldly admitted he was only there looking for Nancy Pelosi because he wanted to bring her harm. He also said he was willing to go through Paul Pelosi if need be just to get Nancy.
At that moment, DePape began beating Mr. Pelosi in the head with the hammer directly in front of the police officers. They immediately tackled and restrained him.
When asked last week if she had seen the video footage of the assault, Mrs. Pelosi was adamant.
“I have absolutely no intention of seeing the deadly assault on my husband’s life,” she told reporters. “I won’t be making any more statements about this case as it proceeds except to again thank people and inform them of Paul’s progress,” Pelosi added.
Paul Pelosi was hospitalized for several days after the attack, and reportedly still deals with the after-effects of being hit in the head with a hammer.
DePape faces federal charges of assault and attempted kidnapping, as well as attempted murder, residential burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon.
During a recent and bizarre telephone call into the KTVU newsroom from his jail cell, DePape was far from remorseful.
“People killing it [individual liberties] have names and addresses, so I got their names and addresses so I could pay them a little visit…have a heart-to-heart chat about their bad behavior.”
“I want to apologize to everyone. I messed up. What I did was really bad,” DePape said sarcastically. “I’m so sorry I didn’t get more of them. It’s my own fault. No one else is to blame. I should have come better prepared,” he added.
Despite video proof of his admission of guilt and the actual attack, DePape has pled not guilty.
OK WASSUP! discusses the Top News Today:
The Tyre Nichols and Paul Pelosi videos.
Charles Blow:
The spectacle of a televised countdown to the showing of the video in which Tyre Nichols was savagely beaten by Memphis police officers doesn’t just theatricalize Black death; it is a damning indictment of American perversion.
It was horrific, as promised, but unfortunately not singularly so. It was instead yet another data point in a long line of videos showing the torturing of Black bodies by police. It was more snuff porn with Black victims in a country becoming desensitized to the violence because of its sheer volume.
America — and the world — had the realization that police violence was a problem, and then it simply walked away before the work was done and the war was won.